


I can feel you

by Akemichan



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Season/Series 07, Shiro and Keith speaks, Song: Can You Feel The Love Tonight (Disney), and feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28358598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akemichan/pseuds/Akemichan
Summary: Shiro is dealing with his new body.It means he needs to deal with his feelings for Keith too.Written for the Santa Exchange of the Sheith Empire Discord
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	I can feel you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheBlueshiftNebula](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlueshiftNebula/gifts).



> svcepp asked me for some hurt/comfort + angst with a happy ending + soulmateAU and so... this thing came out.  
> Hope you all enjoy it!

The moment Shiro remains alone with Keith in the Black Lion’s cockpit, he realizes it was a mistake.

The acid rain is tapping against the Lion’s eyes, and Pidge already confirmed that going out would be too dangerous for everyone, despite their paladin armors. The Lions are still low on energy, and with the storm around they can’t fly away.

They’re trapped until it ends.

Shiro’s trapped.

And no, not even the fact he can mock Lance a little, since Lance was the one with the idea of stopping by that planet makes Shiro feels better.

When the rain started, it was him – a terrible, traitor part of him – who turned to Keith, and he ended run up with him and hid inside the Black Lion with him. He didn’t realize, not until Black closed his door, what would have meant remaining alone with Keith again.

Shiro’s gaze wanders, searching for Kosmo. He was nowhere to be seen, probably he remains with Pidge who was cuddling him earlier. Not that his presence would have changed anything, and Shiro knows very well that asking Kosmo to bring him back to the Green Lion would have worsened the situation and raised more questions than Shiro would like to answer.

Still, the lingering tension inside the cockpit was clear, and Keith feels it too, in the way he can’t just stay still. He walks in and out, searching around, so he can have something to do instead to just sit down in silence next to Shiro.

Shiro takes his eyes off him and focuses on the rain that droll from the window. He does notice Keith’s steps getting near, but he turns only when Keith speaks.

“You can use this.” On his right hand, there is something that looks like a Galra hair spray. “It isn’t efficient like a pod, but it helps for the pain. Standard Blade device.”

“What for?” Shiro asks.

Keith hesitates a little, lips pressed. “For the burns.” And his left hand makes a gesture on his face, near the cheek – gratefully, the one without the scar.

Only then, Shiro realizes he’s referring to the small burning wound the rain left on Shiro’s face as they ran to safety.

“It’s okay, they don’t hurt too much.”

“Okay.”

Finally, Keith sits down on the pilot chair with something that seems a sight. His body crumbles like he’s tired.

“I’m sorry,” he says at last.

Shiro fakes a small chuckle. “Unless you mean you’re able to create an acid storm, you don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“No, I-” Keith doesn’t recognize the joke, or he doesn’t care. “I mean this situation. I know you hate feeling weak.” He turns around and shots a look at Shiro’s missing arm. “I saw it with my mother too. You can’t stand still.”

Ah, so that’s it. Keith regrets cutting Shiro’s arm. And Shiro has still difficult to process the complete and utter devotion Keith has.

“You did what you have to do to survive,” Shiro says. “You did too much,” he adds.

“Nothing is too much,” Keith replies, gritting his teeth. For saving you remains unsaid, but it’s clear for both of them.

“But in the end, you didn’t manage to save me,” Shiro whispers. Resignation was in his voice, and he wasn’t trying to put any blame on Keith’s side. Still, he regrets saying it in the moment Keith turns his face at him, eyes and mouth wide.

“Well, I’m alive, so you _did_ save me after all.”

“But?” Keith presses.

There is no turning back now, and Shiro wants to take the weight off his shoulders.

“This body… It’s mine, but it’s not mine. I can’t feel it anymore. I don’t know what I am anymore.” He closes his eyes. “I felt like… I can’t feel anymore. Like I am in an empty box and nothing more.”

“Shiro…” Keith murmurs, and tries to get nearer.

“Don’t,” Shiro states, shifting a little, uncomfortable.

Keith stops. “You can’t feel pain?” he asks.

That’s not it. Shiro sighs.

“I can’t feel my Soulmate anymore.”

The look Keith gives him is a mixture of sadness, betrayal, and resignation. Then, with a gulp, he murmurs, “maybe he…” and he trails off. He knows too much that it’s almost impossible for a Soulmate not being felt. Even if the Soulmate doesn’t get hurt, the other half can still feel something: a lingering feeling, the way the heart changes its beating, the tears on the cheeks.

Keith swallows. “Maybe he’s dead.”

“No, he isn’t.”

“You can’t be sure,” Keith rushes to reply, and he comes off rude, even if Shiro understands it was to comfort him. “We were far away from Earth from so long…”

“I am sure,” Shiro states. Then, looking straight in Keith’s eyes, he adds, “because it’s you.”

It would be impossible at that point for Keith’s eyes to wide more, yet there they are. It lasts a second, because then Keith lowers his gaze on the ground.

“You never told me.”

Shiro smiles. “The first time I noticed it… it was when you had that fight with Griffin. I felt it very clear.”

Unwilling, Keith releases a low laugh. “Griffin’s punches weren’t so strong.”

“Enough to feel a little pinch, but I’m pretty sure yours were strong,” Shiro concedes. “As your feeling were strong. I may not know you well back then, but your pain was there. I _felt_ it. Now I can’t anymore.”

“Why you didn’t tell me before?” Keith repeats.

“I didn’t want to burden you with this.” After all, at the time Shiro was with Adam, and he thought he didn’t have much to live. No reason to tell Keith about it. “And then the Galra happened.”

When Keith didn’t answer, Shiro closes his eyes and settles a little better. “You can let me down now.”

And then, suddenly, he felt a sting pain on his left palm. He jerks, stands up, and looks at it. Nothing was there, the skin looks perfect, yet the pain is there.

“You felt that, didn’t you?”

Keith is there in front of him: a cut on his left palm, caused by his own blade, still dirtied with blood, the same that is dropping from Keith’s palm too.

“How…”

Keith’s smile is sad. “I may have bottled up a little after the fight with the other you,” he admits. “It was too much for me, and for you… I wanted to be strong for you. But, Shiro,” he adds, and his Adam’s apple trembles a little, “you’re still you. I know, because I can still feel you. That’s how I know you got burn by the rain.”

“What…”

“I’m your Soulmate too.” Keith’s eyes are half closed now, full of regrets and sadness. “That years, in the desert… I felt you. Every day, every wound… I know you were alive, and in danger, and I couldn’t do anything but wait. So there won’t be ‘too much’ for me into saving you, ever. Not after all that you went through.”

Shiro staggers. Days and days of pain and sadness flow through him, once he realizes that it was not Keith that bottled up his feeling. Shiro himself wasn’t able to focus and realize that all that sadness wasn’t his own, that Keith was bear half of it.

There was a time Shiro hoped Keith might felt as he felt, and there was a time he feared it, and a time he wished he didn’t. And now…

“Keith… I…” He moves neared and grips Keith’s wound hand, to stop the blood and feel it under his fingers. “I too-”

The blade clatters on the ground as Keith places his left hand on Shiro’s chest, stopping his blabbering.

“I know, Shiro, I know,” he murmurs, the hint of a tiny smile on his lips and little tears in his blue eyes. “I can feel it.”

And Shiro is embraced by the feeling of Keith’s love too.


End file.
